Journal of Language and Literature ISSN: 1410-5691 (print); 2580-5878 (online) Anastasia Ratnaningsih Indonesian Online News: Where Does the Bias Go? Anastasia Ratnaningsih [email protected] Faculty of Languages and Literature, Petra Christian University Abstract The shift from printed articles to online articles makes online news even more important for us. This saying is also applied in Indonesia, as people in Indonesia have started to turn toward online news rather than printed ones. Due to the interest Indonesians have gathered toward online news, it is important for online news to be as objective as possible, as it becomes a primary source of information and the latest updates. For this reason, this research delves into the world of Indonesian online news to see how objective it is. This research uses Kompas.com as its subject of research, and propaganda model becomes the primary theory with critical discourse analysis (CDA) as its framework. Propaganda model uses ownership, advertising, sourcing, flak, and fear as aspects used to measure the mass media, in this case Indonesian online news. This research also uses ideology where power comes into play. Through propaganda model, ideology, and CDA, this research finds out that despite of the objectivity that is supposed to exist in Indonesian online news, in this research is Kompas.com, only subjectivity and bias can be seen from it. The bias and subjectivity stem from various aspects. Through propaganda model, this research finds out that those aspects are ownership, sponsorship, personal beliefs, and profit. Despite the fact that Kompas.com is supposed to be neutral, there is little neutrality in their articles, as their articles are generated based on the bias made by the aspects mentioned. Although this research only uses Kompas.com, Kompas.com becomes an example of how little objectivity Indonesian online news has. Being the source of information, it is expected to be objective and neutral. However, instead of being neutral, Indonesian online news is biased with certain factors affecting the way the news is written. Instead of having accurate and objective online news, it is written with bias and in non-neutral way. Keywords: Kompas.com, CDA, propaganda model, bias Introduction cellphones, radio, computers, laptops and other technological things. As technology News today is not like it was before. Long keeps progressing day by day, many turns to ago before the internet, printing press, and news source that is easier for them to reach, other readable materials came into existence, and that is no other than online news. With relying news was like an endless chain of many people having access to the internet journey and hard work. News, similar with easily these days, it is not a surprise anymore French’s nouvelles and German’s neues, is that many of them prefer to look at the latest defined as new piece of information that is news online rather than through television or delivered to others, delivering the latest radio. information as soon and as early as possible (Stephens 1988: 13). For years the world With many people accessing their latest relied on newspaper for the latest information, information through online news, it is and it stayed that way for a while. Everything necessary to understand what online news is. changed when technology became more From the explanation above, it can be assumed innovative with the invention of television, that online news is an article retelling a certain 30 Journal of Language and Literature Vol. 19 No. 2 – October 2019 ISSN: 1410-5691 (print); 2580-5878 (online) event/incident through online means such as people are Line users, meaning that 30 million websites, comments, and so on. According to have access to Line News with just a simple De Wolk, online journalism is “quality news or swipe and click. 30 million might not be information posted on the internet nothing compared to the number of population (particularly the world wide web) (2001). in Indonesia, but it is no small number. According to Pavlik, the term is contextualized Moreover, this is only Line application. There journalism. It means that the media written are other applications such as BB, Babe, and online can be presented better due to the others. All of the news in the applications also various technological development that can be has their individual websites, meaning that used for the news presentation instead of people can go directly to their websites using the traditional paper and printing without having to use application as its (Pavlik, 2001: 217). As it can be seen, there are medium. This is how influential technology is, various definitions of online news. However, and seeing the influence technology has, it these definitions agree with one thing, and that makes sense for news to appear online. This is is the fact that online news is presented in a why online news are important, especially in virtual reality that cannot be accessed Indonesia. physically, from world wide web to application. It has been established that Indonesian online news is the perfect information giver for Seeing how online news is starting to our society today. It gives the latest become a part of the modern lifestyle, it is information, and is easy to be accessed for the important to understand that online news is current generation whose technology has indeed important in Indonesia. Rizki Ubaidilah dominated many aspects of their lives. told/stated his opinion regarding online media However, this where things come into play. As through Kompasiana: the information giver for society in Indonesia, it is important for online news to deliver news “Media online kini telah menjadi salah satu the way it is. The news should be delivered media komunikasi yang mulai mendapat according to how the event actually happened banyak perhatian dari masyarakat. without any interference (Warren 1999: 203). Keberadaannya juga mulai menjadi favorit This means that no matter who the reporter is bagi seluruh lapisan masyarakat.” friend with, no matter who owns the (Ubaidilah, 2016) publishing company, no matter who funds the company, the news should be reported “Online media has become one of the means objectively. The news delivered should be of communication that is taken seriously by honest, unbiased and isolated from any side the society. It has also become one of (Calcutt& Hammond 2011: 97 – 114). society’s favorite place to look up for.” (Ubaidilah, 2016) Unfortunately, there is no such thing as neutral media. Newton said that media is Ubaidilah emphasized that online news always biased because journalists are unable can be enjoyed by any class in the society. A to present all the facts about in the news, simple real-life example can be taken from selecting facts considered necessary for them Line Application. Line is a social media that is (as cited in Goodin and Reeve 1989). Because used for one-to-one or a group conversation in of that, finding an unbiased media becomes the cellphone. However, Line has another hard to do or maybe impossible. However, section in its application entitled Line News. In sometimes we do not realize the bias in media Line News, articles from various websites are because they are not implicitly stated in the provided. With just a click, Line users can read news. This is where the research comes into the article from the website. This is an play. This research would like to see the reason extremely simple example, but it is an example why online Indonesian news is biased. There is that is done by many people. According to a always a reason behind their bias, and the survey done by Jakpat in 2016, there are 30 researcher would like to find out what the million Line users in Indonesia, and 86% of reason of the bias. The researcher would also them are active users (Jakpat 2016). 30 million like to find the subtlety of the bias and see how 31 Journal of Language and Literature ISSN: 1410-5691 (print); 2580-5878 (online) Anastasia Ratnaningsih clever media insert their bias within their their employers (superstructure), and news. employees are given the ideology that they should obey their employers no matter what. To discuss biases in newspapers, this Such ideology becomes an ideology that is paper employs critical discourse analysis considered as normal and acceptable today. using propaganda model as the framework. The researcher also used propaganda model If we use Critical Discourse Analysis and that was proposed by Chomsky and Herman. propaganda model, we can see how ideology Propaganda model is used to read the affects Indonesian online news. CDA allows elements of ideology in Kompas.com, and this research to understand the hidden ideology within the subject is read through meaning behind the online news published, Propaganda Model. First, the researcher found and Propaganda Model is used to measure the elements of propaganda model in a specific whether the ideology affects Indonesian online online media portal. After finding the elements news or not. of propaganda model, the researcher tried to find out how ideology and power/relations Another theory that is used to analyze come into play in the bias within online news deliverance and read the ideology in Indonesian news. Kompas.com is Propaganda Model. Proposed by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman in The online media that is chosen for this Manufacturing Consent, propaganda model is research is the portal Kompas.com. a theory stating that news deliverance is not Kompas.com is the primary subject of this objective (1988). In fact, news deliverance is research that represents all online Indonesian affected by 5 factors called 5 Filters of Mass news. The researcher used Kompas.com due to Media.